On Call: A Communications Service for Education

On Call, WSSDA's communications service for public education, is written by public relations professionals who understand schools. Now in its 20th year, On Call has received national and international acclaim for its timely, thoroughly researched tip sheets on communication topics, and its attractive ready-to-print items that help you stretch your communication dollar. School districts of all sizes use On Call as a foundation for or supplement to their on-going public relations activities. On Call is just what the name implies: ready for you to use when you need it!

A Cost-Effective Resource for Your Schools
In this era of tight budgets and declining resources, the On Call public relations service is more valuable than ever. On Call is a low-cost tool for developing and sustaining an effective, two-way communication program, one that will help your district build public confidence in public education by providing accurate information and assistance to your schools and your communities.

What You Receive
A subscription to On Call will provide you with 10 packets of materials that cover a wide variety of communication topics. In the course of a year, you will receive:

• Ready-to-print brochures, ads, flyers and certificates that can be used to honor students, staff and citizens, and help your district keep your community well-informed.
• Articles that explore the myths and realities of public education, and a multitude of ideas for effectively working with communities.
• A monthly parent newsletter, Insights, and a quarterly wellness newsletter, Here's to You!, both ready to print.
• Carefully researched guides on subjects such as how to handle complainers, public speaking, how to network, non-verbal communication, communicating change, recognizing staff, how to improve publications, and many, many others. These guides contain ideas that can be easily and quickly used in your district. The results will be dramatic.
• Articles, fillers and/or editorials that help you call attention to such important observances as American Education Week, School Board Appreciation Month, Teacher Appreciation Week and Classified Employees Week.
• Complete directions on how to produce an annual guide/calendar, accompanied by ready-to-print calendar pages. Used by some districts as the basis of their parent calendar, On Call calendar pages also provide content and design ideas.
• Special communications/public relations tips for school board members. When your monthly packet of materials is made available to the school district, each board member for your district is also sent one or two tip sheets that are written to help them better fulfill their responsibilities as advocates for public schools.

On Call is online!
WSSDA’s On Call Communications Service is available to all subscribers via the Internet. What’s more, districts can receive a discounted price by choosing online-only access to this valuable public relations service.

WSSDA provides On Call subscribers with an electronic link to a secure section of our Web site containing On Call materials. Subscribers can download and print each month’s packet of materials, which are available as high-quality originals and as “text-only” documents to place in your own publications. In addition, an online archive is available for easy access to past issues.

To view a sample issue of On Call from our Online Archive, click here.

How to Subscribe
WSSDA offers two levels of service for On Call subscribers:

To subscribe or request additional information, please contact WSSDA's Sheila Chard at 360/252-3011 or S.Chard@wssda.org. You may also use our convenient online subscription request form to sign up for On Call.